


Beauty in a Catastrophe

by sunsetking



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, F/M, One Shot, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-20 15:27:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19994467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetking/pseuds/sunsetking
Summary: She dies. But not even in death does duty end.Love doesn’t end either.





	Beauty in a Catastrophe

It was murky. 

Daenerys was disoriented. A moment ago, she had stood in front of the Throne she had fought so hard for, in the arms of the man she loved. 

The Throne remained, but Jon was gone.

Daenerys looked around. It was almost exactly how she remembered it, except it was nighttime. The sky was inky black, and no stars shone down on her. A sudden fear seized her, and when she looked down, Daenerys’s fears were confirmed. 

The wound she had seen in her last moments was no nightmare. It was there, marring her flesh and standing as proof of Jon’s betrayal. 

Daenerys let out a scream, the sound of grief and hurt echoing around her.

“I was your Queen! Is this how you-”

A scream much hers emerged from the darkness of King’s Landing. 

Another scream came from the city.

And another.

Daenerys sprinted out of the Throne room, running towards the source of the sounds.

****

Daenerys wasn’t alone.

Thousands upon thousands of people stood motionless in the ruins of King’s Landing. They were all of them smallfolk, but that wasn’t what Daenerys noticed. 

The Dragon Queen studied the people, and quickly realized something was very wrong.

Every person there bore some burn, some fatal injury, but no one but her seemed to notice. As Daenerys observed the vast crowd, a shiver ran down her spine.

“Who are all of you? What are you doing here?”

Daenerys shuddered as the sea of people turned to her. She was affixed with the stares of thousands and thousands of eyes, as shades of brown, blue and green bore into purple orbs. 

Daenerys ran away.

****

After several hours, she returned. 

This time, Daenerys walked slowly in front of the crowd, taking the time to observe each person’s features. 

It took countless hours, but the sun never arose, and Daenerys didn’t feel the stab of hunger or thirst.

About a third of the way through her task, the Targaryen realized what had brought them all here.

And she ran away again, but this time she wept.

****

She returned once more. 

This time, she spoke. 

Daenerys tried to explain, tried to show why it had been necessary. 

The sea of people didn’t respond. Their eyes bore into hers; void of all emotion.

Daenerys ran away.

****

Again she spoke.

Again there was nothing but silent stares.

Again she ran away.

****

This went on and on. It was important, it mattered to Daenerys that they understood _why_ she had destroyed King’s Landing.

“There was a reason! It wasn’t for nothing!”

And Daenerys tried to explain, but her words rang false in the warm, stagnant air.

****

After an eternity, Daenerys gave up. She sat down amongst the silent people, and closed her eyes.

An infant’s wail made her open them.

****

When Daenerys found the baby, she heaved. 

The child was badly burned, and Daenerys could see white bone peeking out from behind blackened flesh. He thrashed violently, and Daenerys’s heart seized at the motions. 

She picked up the child, murmuring soothing words. The baby let out an agonized wail as her hands accidentally brushed against a bare bone, and Daenerys bit back a sob.

“It’s okay, sweetling. You’re okay.”

But the baby was clearly not okay. Daenerys pressed a kiss to the infant’s head, and her tears trickled down into the soft, downy hair on his head. 

****

The pair’s wails echoed in the warm night.

****

Daenerys walked around and around the ruined city, the whimpering baby in her arms. 

“I wanted to ensure that your people would never get hurt, little one. I wanted to protect the innocent.”

Daenerys looked down at the boy in her arms.

“I wanted to break the wheel.”

As the baby began crying again, Daenerys looked up at the empty sky.

“What was the point, if this is what my life caused?”

****

Daenerys carried the baby to the Throne, and the two stood in silence before the metal monument. 

“I did so much, for this.”

Daenerys walked over to the Iron Throne, and placed a hand on the metal.

The baby moaned as a gust of wind blew dust onto his wounds.

“And it was all for nothing. Less than nothing, for in doing so, I became a monster.”

Daenerys hugged the burnt baby.

“I’m sorry. It’s meaningless, but I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I stole your life from you, that I-”

Daenerys sank to her knees, holding the baby close. After a while, she got up and climbed onto the Throne, the boy tucked in her arms.

Daenerys stares down at the ruined room, and out at the burnt city beyond. She nodded.

“It was wrong. On the back of a dragon, perhaps it was an easy choice to make; I was separated from the consequences of my actions. But with you, sweetling, and all the others, I understand what I’ve done. I’m sorry. I wish I could take all of your pain from you. You didn’t deserve this.”

The baby gurgled, and its blackened arm reached for her hair. Daenerys smiled despite herself, and waved a lock of white hair before his eyes.

Her smile faded as she took a good look at what she had done to the child. Bending over, she pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“I’ll fix this. I don’t know how, but I will. For all of you. All of us.”

The baby smiled. When Daenerys looked closer, she realized that the child’s form was indistinct and wavy. As she watched, the baby dissolved into the air. Daenerys felt the heavy load on her soul get ever so slightly lighter.

A baby girl’s wail echoed from the crowd in the city. 

****

So it began. A child would awake, and Daenerys would be there to comfort him or her. After a while, the child would fade away. Daenerys didn’t know where they went, but she somehow knew they were better off.

****

After a long time, a man awoke. When he saw Daenerys, he was enraged at the Dragon Queen who had slain him and his children. 

He beat her savagely, on and on until Daenerys couldn’t see straight anymore, until she was bleeding profusely from her mouth and nose. When the man finally had his fill, he sat back and wept for all he had lost. 

Daenerys tried moving her broken jaw, but it was impossible. Suddenly, with a crack, her jaw was healed, and she could see out of her eyes again.

“I hate you!” The peasant roared at her. “Foreign whore! You came and destroyed everything! My daughter is dead because of you! She burned away in my hands!”

Daenerys bowed her head, and spoke.

“I’m sorry, for what it’s worth.”

“I’m going to kill you!”

“I’m already dead. My lover killed me, when he realized what I had done.”

“At least someone got to avenge us!”

Daenerys walked to the farmer, and bowed low before him.

“I can’t bring back your daughter, no matter how much I wish I could. And it seems that no matter how much you punish me, I shall heal. So what do you wish to do?”

The man kicked her in the head. Ears ringing, she got up.

“Will this make you feel better?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to try!”

The man wrapped his hands around her throat, and squeezed. Daenerys gasped for breath, but it was pointless. Black spots swam in her vision.

Suddenly, the pressure lessened, as the man’s form began to dissipate. The last part of him was his eyes, which blazed with fury as they dissolved into air.

Daenerys collapsed to the ground, her burden that much lighter.

****

Many reacted as the man had. But many did not.

There were septas who lectured Daenerys on the sanctity of life, and there were sellswords who praised her for her accomplishments. There were those who cursed her, and those who thanked her for freeing them from a miserable life. There were children who peppered her with questions about her dragon, and children who ran away screaming at the sight of their murderer. Some even pitied the poor madwoman who had thrown away her life and theirs, and comforted her even as she tried to comfort them. Among a swarm of thousands, Daenerys found thousands of reactions to her presence, amd each encounter ended with her victim disappearing into nothingness.

****

Slowly, the number of people lessened. And Daenerys’s burden got lighter. 

****

“Once, there were many here. You are the last.”

Daenerys sat at the feet of an elderly septon, who gave her a warm smile, even though she had killed him.

“Where did the others go, my lady?”

“I don’t know.”

The septon gave her a deep, unreadable look.

“I taught my flock that the Stranger is the one to decide where we go in the afterlife. But there is another view, held by many of those who have studied the Seven.”

Daenerys nodded, waiting expectantly.

“They say that all of existence is one, just as the Seven are in truth seven faces of one being. And because of this, when we die, we are simply born again, in a different place and time, in a different form.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know.” The septon gave a laugh as his face melted into dust. “I’m going to find out now.”

****

Daenerys was alone.

****

She sat on the beach, the night sky and the ocean merging into one. 

She wandered through the tunnels of the Red Keep, placing a hand on the warm dragon skulls.

She sang a Valyrian lullaby to the sky above a godswood in the Red Keep.

She lit dozens of candles for each of the gods in a sept somewhere in the city.

She cradled an Targaryen urn that contained the ashes of her nephew and niece.

She danced alone in the center of the blasted remains of Flea Bottom.

She was Daenerys Targaryen, and she began to forgive herself.

****

After an eternity, Daenerys found herself back in front of the Iron Throne. Daenerys studied her ancestors’ legacy, a calm smile on her face.

“I... am perhaps the biggest failure in our House’s history.”

She walked over to the Iron Throne, and sat on the ground right at the Throne’s feet. 

“I’m sorry. But maybe this is the way things were meant to be. Jon rejected his Targaryen heritage; I was barren. House Targaryen was finished. And I-”

“Daenerys?”

The Dragon Queen whirled around, and froze.

Jon Snow stood before her, just like he had eons ago.

“Jon.”

The northerner swayed on his feet. Daenerys ran to him, and caught him in her arms as his feet gave way.

Jon cried, an anguished sound that echoed around the Red Keep’s ruins. Daenerys mumbled words of comfort into his black curls.

After a while, the tears stopped, and the two Targaryens lay in each other’s arms.

“Thank you, Jon.”

“For what? For destroying you, the person I love- I _sinned!_ I became a kinslayer! It was something horrible!”

“It was a crime, and a terrible one. You did it, and you can’t take it back. But with that said, I still thank you. You loved me, and you killed me before I could add to my crimes.” Daenerys looked around her, and remembered all the lives she had ruined. 

“You were the shield that guarded the Realm of Men, Jon. You did what you had to.” A sad sigh came from her lips. “We are both of us dead, and with us, House Targaryen is gone-”

Jon shook his head. When his eyes met hers, they were filled with a steely resolve.

“House Targaryen lives on.”

An impossible hope rose in Daenerys.

“It lives on in my children.”

Rhae and Dany, Daenerys learned, were the names of the two Targaryens living amongst the wildlings beyond the Wall.

“Their mother was a Lyseni who found herself shipwrecked near Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. They have her coloring, her blonde hair and purple eyes.”

Daenerys smiled.

“I am happy something of our traditional looks survive. But tell me, why did you, who were so ashamed of your heritage, tell them of theirs?”

Jon struggled for words, and then gave a bitter laugh.

“We were ruined because I couldn’t accept my origins. I didn’t want my children to ever feel that way, to ever be in that position. So I told them everything.”

“And what do they think of it?”

“Dany is happy amongst the freefolk. I don’t think she’ll ever travel further south than the Wall. I imagine she’ll steal a husband, or be stolen for a wife, and live out her days with her family.”

“A good life.”

“Aye.”

“And Rhae?”

“Rhae pretends to not care. But I’ve seen him, at night and early in the morning. His eyes forever point south. He’ll be marching at the front of a conquering army some day. I can feel it.”

Daenerys shuddered. “I don’t want anymore Targaryens dying for that Throne, Jon.”

Jon shrugged. 

“It’s our fate, I guess. And if he fights for a throne, he’ll have to forge one of his own. Drogon destroyed the Iron one.”

Daenerys’s heart surged at the mention of her only surviving child.

“‘Rhae Targaryen the Conqueror’, eh?”

“If the gods will it.”

Daenerys smiled, the last weight, that of dooming her House, fell off her shoulders.

Daenerys pressed her lips to Jon’s cheek. He wrapped his arms around her, and for a moment the pair enjoyed peace.

Then their bodies swam and faded away.

****

A dragon not sighted for decades flew north.

A wildling host marched south, with a dragonrider at their front.

More than a half-century after his first flight there, Drogon flew over King's Landing.

Rhae Targaryen slew Bran the Broken, and became king. 

And with the swords of his enemies, he forged a Throne of Iron.

****

Two porpoises played in the waters of Blackwater Bay.

Two spiders weaved a web together in a corner of the Red Keep.

Two robins built a nest for their little egg.

****

House Targaryen returned to full strength, and a Dornish Queen bore a Targaryen son.

****

A life of only joy is as horrible a fate as a life of only misery. House Targaryen was blessed with both.

****

A civil war was fought. The headman’s axe feasted.

A fisherman’s wife wailed at the news her husband would never arrive back onshore.

A lion snarled at a buffalo that had gored his mate.

****

But the grief always ended, and the joy would begin again.

A dragon prince wed a beautiful princess, and he hatched a dragon egg.

Two birds tended to a chick.

A farmer and his wife slept together in the Dornish sun.

****

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

****

“Egg, Papa’s gonna be mad!”

“Quiet, Vis!”

Two children scampered through a cave on Dragonstone, their feet splashing in the mud.

“We shouldn’t be down here! What if we get lost?”

“I know the way back!”

As children often do, the little ones indeed got lost.

“Don’t cry, Visenya. I’ll get us home!”

“We’re lost! Everyone’s going to forget us, and we’ll have to live in this icky cave!”

“Look! There’s a light!”

The little girl wiped her eyes and stared into the darkness.

“There’s two!”

The children followed the lights, as the little blazes led them out of the cave.

“See! I told you!”

Visenya laughed, and hugged her brother. As she did, she saw the lights draw close, and two fireflies flew past them and into the sky.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys like this. I look forward to reading your comments!


End file.
